Cost won't put a stop to freeway: Brumby

By Clay Lucas

22 May 2010 — 3:00am

PREMIER John Brumby has said his government will press ahead with plans for WestLink, a multibillion-dollar freeway under Footscray and through Sunshine West, despite the economic case for the road being exposed as poor.

State Greens MP Greg Barber this week obtained a confidential government submission showing that, in 2008, the cost of building WestLink was estimated by the Brumby government to be $3.5 billion.

The same study said the new freeway would provide economic benefits of just $1.14 billion.

Since 2008, the estimated cost of building WestLink has increased to $5 billion.

Mr Brumby said yesterday that the predicted economic benefit of building big transport projects such as WestLink was not always huge.

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''If you look at all of these big projects … they don't come up with big benefit-cost ratios, that is the nature of these big projects, because they are very, very long-term in their nature,'' he said.

''[But] we need to be investing in transport.''

He said the WestLink project was needed because Melbourne had to have another major roadway coming in from the west, besides the West Gate Bridge.

''For a city of our size, it is not sustainable long-term to just have a single river crossing,'' he said. ''We just need to accept this.''

■ The Age yesterday reported that the economic benefit of the $4.3 billion Regional Rail Link, a 47-kilometre rail line from Werribee to Southern Cross, to be $10.4 billion, according to state government estimates obtained by the Greens.

In fact, these documents found the economic benefit to be $6.2 billion.